An Essay upon the Relation of Cause and Effect

Introduction

Lady Mary Shepherd, daughter of a Scottish earl and educated at home, published this book in 1824 as a direct attack on Hume’s account of causation. Hume had argued that we never perceive a necessary connection between cause and effect and expect one only out of habit. Shepherd answers with an argument from reason: nothing can give itself existence, so whatever begins to exist must have a cause. She also holds that cause and effect are simultaneous – the effect is the new combination of qualities that arises when objects come together – and rejects Hume’s claim that whatever is conceivable is possible. Neglected for a long time, the book has been reassessed in recent decades.

Connections

Criticizes

• A Treatise of Human Nature1739 · David Hume
• An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding1748 · David Hume

More works by Mary Shepherd

• 1827Essays on the Perception of an External Universe